For those who may not know, the "-beta" flavor of OpenBSD is -current which has all of the functionality of the upcoming -release. 4.5-release is expected on or before May 1. Its purpose is to have a robust testing (and patching) period prior to the final -release lock down.

An OpenBSD user on 4.4-release/4.4-stable who wishes to participate in testing may "upgrade" to 4.5-beta using a snapshot, followed by careful use of sysmerge(8) along with a review of the following -current FAQ. Continued testing with new snapshots will go on for 4 to 6 weeks. At the end of the beta period, the user may elect to stay with -current, or, may "upgrade" from 4.5-beta to 4.5-release/stable on May 1.

If the user moves on to 4.5-current at the end of the -beta period (when -release is tagged), they should note they'll stay on -current unless they reinstall, as an "upgrade backwards" to 4.5-release is not supported.